Get to know George Darcy

March 31, 2013

Parents: James and Emily DarcyBorn: January 12, 1767; oldest by five minutes to identical twin AlexanderSiblings: Mary (10 years older) James (7 years older), Estella (4 years older), Alexander, and Philip (8 years younger)Birthplace & Residence: Pemberley in Derbyshire, England

Significant adolescent events: At thirteen begins studies with local physician, Dr. Meager; at fifteen apprentices to local apothecary, Mr. Jones; in 1782 Estella marries Mr. Xavier Montrose of Exeter, Devon; James marries Lady Anne Fitzwilliam in 1783; death of mother, Emily Darcy, in 1784; enters Trinity College at Cambridge University to study medicine in 1784 at seventeen years of age.

Young adult timeline: From 1784 to 1789 George rarely returns to Pemberley. He dwells in a small house near the University with six other medical students. Visits with family are brief and typically in London at Darcy House. A notable exception is a family holiday to Brighton in April 1787. Concurrently during the five years George studies at Cambridge, he also works in several London hospitals, attends lectures and apprentices at the Company of Surgeons (later the Royal College of Surgeons), and joins the Society of Apothecaries to learn about medicines and gain admission to the Chelsea Physic Garden. In 1787 he lives in Paris for half the year while studying at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, missing the death of his niece Alexandria and the birth of his nephew Fitzwilliam.

By December 1788 George completes the necessary education and is granted his medical doctorate degree from Cambridge. In February 1789, one month past his twenty-second birthday, George applies for licentiate from the Royal College of Physicians. Despite his scandalous application to the field of surgery and association with apothecaries, the Royal College authorities accept his application (and payment). Dr. George Darcy passes the examinations with high marks, and is awarded the license legally required to practice medicine in England. He is also asked to accept a candidacy into the Royal College of Physicians – a fellowship all but assured in record time – but George politely declines.

Instead, he enlists as a physician with the British East India Company at the headquarters in London, and accepts an assignment as ship surgeon en route to his contracted position as resident doctor for the EIC military compound on Bombay Island in India. Pending his departure in June, George leaves London for Pemberley.

It is there, on a sunny day in April of 1789 that The Passions of Dr. Darcy begins.

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